The present invention relates to a hard capsule prepared by fish gelatin and its preparation method. More particularly, this invention relates to a hard capsule made by fish gelatin solution as base material; mixed solution of pectin and glycerin as gelling agent; and a small amount of calcium gluconate, sucrose fatty acid esters, glacial acetic acid as additive.
Further, the present invention also provides the method for preparing hard shell gelatin capsule made by fish gelatin and the apparatus for manufacturing hard shell gelatin capsule made by fish gelatin.
Gelatin is a protein of animal origin which has been known for a very long time and has numerous applications in the food, pharmaceutical, photographic and technical sectors. Gelatin is obtained industrially from the bones and skins of cattle and pigs, collected from abattoirs.
Gelatin has a good gelling property in a wide range of pH without support of additional ions or chemical agents. Further, the physical form of gelatin solution can be converted between gel and sol reversibly according to the change of temperature. Therefore, it has been used as a base material of hard capsule.
Recently, the gelatin extracted from bovine bone or pig skin has been avoided due to the risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or religious causes. To replace it, the fish gelatin has been adopted as new base material of hard capsule.
Even though the physiochemical properties of fish gelatin are similar to those of bovine or pig gelatin in viscosity, strength and isoelectric point, the setting point, one of the important property of gelatin, of fish gelatin shows about 22° C. whereas the setting point of bovine or pig gelatin is about 27° C.
The reason why fish gelatin shows lower setting point is that the contents of hydroxyproline in fish gelatin is lower than that of bovine or pig gelatin. About 9% of hydroxyproline is contained in fish gelatin, whereas about 13˜15% of hydroxyproline is contained in bovine or pig gelatin.
The lower setting point of fish gelatin results in lower gelling property of fish gelatin. Therefore, the fish gelatin solution laid on mold pin may flow outside of mold pin due to its lower gelling property.
To solve above problem, a particular gelling agent shall be required to be adopted to fish gelatin solution.
In WO 2000/25760, carrageenan, tamarind seed, pectin, curdlan, gelatin, furcellaran, agar or gellan gum have been disclosed as a gelling agent for gelatin capsule. Further, pectin and glycerin have been also disclosed as a gelling agent in case of hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) capsule.
However, any gelling agent has not been disclosed for fish gelatin capsule.